Originally Posted by
Skroe
The IRGC almost certainly shot down the drone. And the IRGC probably didn't ask permission of the Clerics or the Government. Iran's government is complicated and the IRGC is power unto itself. The IRGC probably did the same thing with the tankers, as you'll recall my discussion there. They wanted to send a message to Khameni and the government, the same day the Prime Minister of Japan was there.
The IRGC does not have conscripts and is not the Iranian military. It's an ideological force.
In the modern Western world we forget this, largely due to our history since the Napoleonic Wars and the rise of "national armies". But before that, armed forces were largely ideological forces forever... sworn to a cause or a leader, but not the state. A modern example of this is the People's Liberation Army in China. De facto, it is the Chinese Military. We call it the Chinese Military. De jure, it is the military wing of the Communist Party of China, and its first allegiance is to the party, and not the state.
Europeans... sneering at boorish, ignorant, short sighted, unsophisticated Americans since 1770.
No, we won't ever get cheered for anything (nor should we expect that). But again, you people are almost never right on the big picture, global security stuff.
I mean hell, even within NATO this is recognized. Yeah there is all 30 members, but once a week, the leaders of the NATO Quint - the US, France, UK, Germany and Italy - all have a conference call to actually run things.